The Senate has asked the Department of Petroleum Resources to henceforth prepare and forward to it daily records of oil and gas production and sale in the country.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, who led members to the headquarters of the DPR in Lagos on oversight visit, said the data would give the upper chamber of the National Assembly an opportunity to have deeper knowledge of activities in the petroleum sector.
Alasoadura, who decried the failure by government agencies to provide information on their activities to the legislature, said the trend must stop.
He said, “The problem with us is that we don’t think the National Assembly is part of the government. I have always told people: take the National Assembly away from governance, there is no more democracy. There is the executive; there is legislature; and there is the judiciary. But it’s only when you have the legislature, which will act as a check on the executive, that there is democracy.
“So, whatever is worth doing for the executive must also be done for the legislature, so that at the end of the day, we will all understand and speak with one voice.”
Alasoadura, however, expressed satisfaction with the performance of the department, saying it had lived up to the expectations of the people.
He said, “We are very impressed by what we saw. A lot of rumours fly around about the seeming incompetence of the DPR. But from all the efforts they are putting into getting the required results for this country in information gathering, going technical or going ballistic, let me put it that way, I think they are putting in their best.
“And I believe that in a few more years’ time, doing business in the oil industry in this country will be so transparent that even people will be able to read what is happening in the oil industry from their bedrooms and from their offices, and that will be a day for Nigeria.”
Alasoadura also said the Senate would seek additional funding for the DPR as what was made available to the department was inadequate to meet its targets for the ongoing year.
The committee also pledged to seek the amendment of the existing laws to raise the DPR’s workforce from the current 1,120 in order to enhance it efficiency.
The Director, DPR, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, said that the department was actively working to launch an innovation that would enable it to monitor oil production, delivery to locations as well as compliance with fuel prices by filling stations from its offices.
He, however, lamented that its operations were being hampered by inadequate funding and workforce.
PUNCH
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